Melissa Agnes is a leading authority on crisis management and preparedness. Agnes is a coveted speaker, commentator, and advisor to some of today’s leading organizations faced with the greatest risks.

As a strategic advisor and keynote speaker, Agnes has worked with NATO, Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, financial firms, technology companies, healthcare organizations, cities and municipalities, law enforcement agencies, global non-profits, universities, and many others, helping them understand risk and build invincible brands that can withstand even the most devastating of events.

She is the editor of the Crisis Ready Blog, a contributor to Forbes, and a go-to source for the press, with recent coverage including the Wall Street Journal, VIBE Magazine, USA Today, and many others. In 2015, Agnes gave a TEDx talk in Los Angeles where she discussed the secret to successful crisis management in the 21st century.

As a university guest lecturer, Agnes teaches crisis management in university courses around the world, including at NYU and McGill.

ISBN: 978-1-68401-4-132Price: $28.00Publication Date: March 20, 2018

Crisis Ready

BUILD AN INVINCIBLE BRAND IN THIS UNCERTAIN WORLD

The potential risks in modern-day business are greater, more dynamic, and less predictable than ever before. And yet, the greatest exposure does not lie within these risks. Rather, it lies in having a team that is not prepared to anticipate, foresee, or respond to a rising threat, and its impact on your reputation, revenue, and relationships in real time.

No matter your level of security, due diligence, or control, the reality is that we live in uncertain times. Organizations are prone
to a multitude of risks that can attack from every angle. When your team is crisis ready, your organization is prepared for anything and everything that the modern world can throw at it.

In Crisis Ready, Melissa Agnes draws from her remarkable experience in helping global brands, government organizations, and world leaders prevent and overcome a range of real-world, high-impact crises. She uses this experience to provide your organization with a clear roadmap to implementing a crisis ready culture—and thus building an INVINCIBLE brand.

Crisis Ready is not about crisis management. Management is what happens after the negative event has occurred. Readiness is what is done to build an INVINCIBLE brand, where negative situations don’t occur—and even if they do, they’re instantly overcome in a way that leads to increased organizational trust, credibility, and goodwill.

No matter the size, type, or industry of your business, Crisis Ready will provide your team with the insight into how to be perfectly prepared for anything life throws at you. Organizations that are crisis ready are more than just resilient. They’re invincible. Crisis Ready is your roadmap to business invincibility.

“The ultimate guide to doing things before it all goes wrong. Every businessperson should have a copy of Crisis Ready on their desk.”

“The speed of crisis in the digital age can quickly overwhelm organizations ill-prepared with outdated strategies centered around press releases and bureaucratic layers of approvals for communication. Crisis Ready serves as a strategic blueprint to help organizations prepare for and successfully navigate turmoil, all while building trust and confidence with their stakeholders.”

—Captain Chris Hsiung,Law Enforcement Executive

“Speaking as a communications professional, there is no one better at crisis communications than Melissa Agnes. She has a calm and patient way of looking at the entire picture, assessing the challenge, and providing recommendations that work in less time than it takes you to say ‘crisis communications.’ With case studies, homework, rules, and tests, you will find yourself ready to handle anything by the end of the book. Read it, absorb it, take lots of notes, and create your crisis preparedness program.”

—Gini Dietrich,CEO of Arment Dietrich and founder and author of Spin Sucks

“Every business of any size needs to read Crisis Ready. Melissa Agnes demonstrates why she is a leading authority on timely, intelligent and appropriate management and communications in moments of crisis. If United Airlines had read this book in 2009, my United Breaks Guitars YouTube video would never have happened. I’m almost glad she hadn’t written it yet.”

—Dave Carroll,Singer-songwriter, Speaker and creator of United Breaks Guitars

“Intelligent. Intuitive. Unabashedly gutsy. Melissa Agnes dismantles crisis cliché, shakes you awake, and takes you on a compelling and insightful journey that will ensure your organization is Crisis Ready.”

“Melissa Agnes gets it! Preparedness—or being ready—is the key to crisis management. In business, as in life, a crisis never gives us advance notice of when and where it will show up—and its ripple effects can reach far into the deep corners of the entire organization. Agnes teaches us that the key to dealing with a crisis is to anticipate all the places it can strike, and then go there and lie in wait with a plan. Shame on you if you are surprised by a crisis!”

—Shelby Yastrow,Retired General Counsel, Executive Vice President and Secretary of McDonald’s.

“If you think the same management techniques that allow you to win at business will enable you to weather a crisis, you are doomed. In a crisis, emotions run high, people revert to habits instead of the plan, information travels quickly—whether it is accurate or not—and the effects of your decisions can be long-lived. Don’t allow the crisis management plan sitting on your shelf give you a false sense of confidence. Read Crisis Ready and then get to work at making crisis management muscle memory for your organization.”